SPURGE FAMILY 



419 



Rocky canons or sandy flats, 500 to 2000 feet : mountains on north and west 

 sides of the Colorado Desert. East to Arizona, south to Lower California. Apr.- 

 May. 



Locs. — Santa Maria Mta., e. Eiverside Co., Schellenger 9 ; Painted Canon, n. of Mecca, Jep- 

 son 11,669 ; Palm Sprs., Mt. San Jacinto, Parish, 4141 ; Palm Canon of San Jacinto, below Vande- 

 venter ranch, Jepson 1400; Palm Canon of Mt. San Isidro, Jepson 8800. 



Kefs. — Argythamnia sericophylla Gray; Wats. Bot. Cal. 2:70 (1880), type loc. Verdi 

 Eiver, Ariz., Smart ; Jepson, Man. 597 (1925). Ditaxis sericophylla Hel. Cat. N. Am. PI. ed. 1, 

 5 (1898). 



2. A. serrata Muell. Arg. (Fig. 218.) Stems several, 2 or 4 to 12 inches long; 

 herbage strigose; leaf -blades broadly ovate to obovate or lanceolate, obscurely ser- 

 rulate or entire, Yz to 1 inch long, contracted 

 to a more or less distinct petiole; sterile whorl 

 of stamens consisting of 5 filaments; petals 

 thin, whitish, purple-veined, narrow-ovate, 

 acute or acuminate, often serrulate, gradually 

 narrowed at base but not definitely clawed, 

 glabrous or merely ciliate at apex; seeds gray, 

 discoid-reticulate, the disks stellately lineate. 



Gravelly washes, 50 to 2500 feet : Colo- 

 rado Desert; eastern Mohave Desert. South- 

 ern Nevada and Arizona to Lower California. 

 July-Nov. 



Locs.— Ft. Yuma (Bot. Cal. 2:69); Milpitas, 

 Colorado Eiver, Jepson 5285 ; Yaqui Well, e. San 

 Diego Co., Jepson 12,520; Hexie Mt., n. side Colo- 

 rado Desert, Clary 928; Pinto Basin, s. Mohave Des- 

 ert, Jepson 12,630; Ash Hill, Mohave Desert, Hall 

 6091. Searchlight, Nev., Parish 10,265. 



Eefs. — Argythamnia serrata Muell. Arg. Lin- 

 naca 34:147 (1865); Jepson, Man. 597 (1925). 

 Aphora serrata Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 197 (1859), 

 based on spms. from Ft. Yuma, Cal., Schott, and Gila 

 Eiver, Ariz., Parry. Ditaxis serrata Hel. Cat. N. Am. 

 PI. ed. 1, 5 (1898). 



Fig. 217. Argythamnia sericophylla 3 j^ clariana Jepson sp. n. Stems many, 



ttsel o'fTamiLt'Tx 3^ o^l^ng: diffusely Spreading, 1 to 1 1/2 feet high freely 

 sect, of pistillate fl., X 3; d, seed, X 5. branched; herbage thmly hairy; leaf -blades 



lanceolate, sometimes ovate, 7 to 14 lines long, 

 the gland-tipped teeth slenderly acuminate or bristle-like ; bracts lanceolate, their 

 teeth prolonged into a very slender gland-tipped acumination; flowers 2% to 3 

 lines long; sepals of pistillate flower with gland-tipped teeth or bristles; sepals of 

 staminate flower narrowly linear-lanceolate, entire or subentire, not glandular, ob- 

 scurely whitish-margined; petals of staminate flower lanceolate, crisped, pinkish 

 and red-veined ; petals of pistillate flower ovate, white, not red-veined or crisped. — 

 (Caules multi, diffusi, ped. 1-1% longi; folia lanceolata, dentibus gracilis, acumi- 

 natis, glandulosis; bracteae lanceolatae, dentibus elongatis in mucrones gracilli- 

 mos glanduliferes productis; floris pistillati sepala bracteis similia, floris staminati 

 anguste lineari-lanceolata, integra vel subintegra, eglandulosa, obscure albo-mar- 

 ginata; nuculae foveo-reticulatae, glaucae, papillatae, obscure lineatae.) 



Sandy benches or desert flats, to 300 feet : Coachella Valley. East to Arizona. 

 Dec-Mar. 



Tax. note. — The size of the staminate flovrer is about the same as the pistillate, but the 

 calyces of the two differ conspicuously in that the slender or bristle-tipped glands of the pistillate 

 flower are quite absent in the staminate flower. In Argythamnia serrata the staminate flower is 

 about one-half the size of the pistillate flower, and both are wholly glandless. In A. clariana the 

 herbage is dark or slightly cupreous, in A. serrata it is whitish. 



